
OF 

THE MISSION 




Of THE 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 



TO THE 



CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA. 



-18 7 7. 




HISTOEY 

OF 

THE MISSION 

OF THE 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

TO THE 

CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA. 



SAN FEANOISCO : 
B, F. Steeett, Pbintee, 532 Clay Stbeet, 

1877. 



SEPTEMBER, 1877. 



Present Agents Employed. 

0 . GrlB SON Superintendent. 

MRS. E. C. GIBSON Assistant. 

MRS. JANE WALKER 

CHAN PAK KWAI Chinese Assistant. 

LAU HOK HAN " 

CHU LOY YAN 

CHAN HON FAN " 

MISS M. A. SALISBURY Teacher. 

MR. H. W. STOWE 

MRS. ALICE STOWE 

MR. T. P. TYLER " 

MRS. MCLLER " 



Chinese Church Members 63 

Probationers 5 

Women and Girls in the Asylum 27 

Average attendance Evening and Sunday Schools. 

In San Francisco 100 

In San Jose 20 

Average attendance Regular Sunday Service, 

Mission House ^ 50 

Daily Preaching at Chapel 50 



HISTOKT. 



In June, 1868, Rev. O. Gibson, who had served ten 
years in the Foo Chow China Mission, was appointed 
by Bishop E. Thomson, missionary to the Chinese in 
California. The only instructions given by Bishop 
Thomson were : " Gro and commence de novo. Use 
your own judgment, and do the best you can." 

Following these instructions, about two years were 
spent by the missionary in efforts to interest the 
Christian sentiment of the Pacific Coast more largely 
in the evangelization of the Chinese among us. He 
was kindly received in all the evangelical churches, 
and lectured and preached quite extensively in Cali- 
fornia, Nevada and Oregon. Considerable new inter- 
est in this hitherto much neglected work was thus cre- 
ated in all Protestant churches, and a system of Sun- 
day and evening schools for instructing the Chinese in 
the English language was inaugurated in nearly all 
Christian denominations. This system of Chinese mis- 
sionary work is still in successful operation in many 
parts of the state. 

While engaged in this general work the missionary 
also collected special funds towards founding a Chinese 
Mission House, and on Christmas day, 1870, the com- ' 
modious and well-furnished 



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MISSION HOUSE, 916 WASHINGTON STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, 

Was dedicated to the cause of Christian missions 
among the Chinese in America, and was deeded^ free of 
all deht or incumbrance, to the Missionary Society of the 
Methodist £)pisGopal Church. The building is 56x70 
feet, three stories high above the basement, and con- 
tains four fine school-rooms, asylum department for 
Chinese women and girls, parsonage for the Superin- 
tendent, and rooms for the assistant missionary and 
teachers, beside the basement, designed for rental pur- 
poses. Total cost of building and furnishing, $31,000. 
This enterprise has never been involved in debt, and has 
never paid a farthing of interest. The location is good. 
The building has always been kept in good repair and 
is a standing credit to the church to which it belongs, 
and to the city in which it stands. 

SCHOOLS. 

A central, graded, evening school tor the Chinese 
was at once opened, and has been continued to the 
present time, with constantly-increasing numbers and 
interest. The averaga attendance the first year did 
not exceed twenty-five. The present average atten- 
dance (1877) is eighty, with a roll-call of about one 
hundred and fifty. This school employs four teachers, 



[ 5 ] 

besides the Superintendent. The teachers, with one 
exception, receive $25 per month salary for teaching in 
this evening school. 

The scholars furnish their own books, and a nominal 
charge of $1 per month is made for tuition. The pay- 
ment of this tuition is left altogether optional w^ith the 
scholars, none being excluded for non-payment, and 
yet the receipts from this source amount to about |400 
per year of ten months. The scholars learn to read 
and spell, to write and sing; they study Geography, 
Arithmetic, Grammar atid History, and the Bible, and 
seem equally interested in all their studies. They are 
well-behaved, respectful and studious, and seem to 
appreciate what is being done for them. A number of 
the most advanced and intelligent scholars of this 
school have become earnest Christians, and are accep- 
table members of the church, while hundreds of others 
have been led to desert their idols, and, in theory at 
least, embrace the doctrine of one God. 

These scholars are scattered all over the country ; 
some have returned to China, and some to Japan, and 
everywhere cherish grateful memories of the school and 
of its Christian teachers. 

Results of this class, though not capable of being 
embodied in statistical reports, yet are sure and power- 
ful agencies in undermining idolatry and lifting up the 
Redeemer. It may not be too much to say that the 
indirect results, of this Chinese Mission in California, 
would well repay the church for all the labor and 
money expended upon it, even if there had been no 
additions to her membership from among the heathen. 



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WORK IN THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 

Nearly all the Chinese in America come from the 
Canton Province of China, and speak a dialect entirely 
different from the people of Foo Chow, where Mr. G-ib- 
son had previously labored. A new and difficult dia- 
lect had to be learned before the Missionary could at 
all make himself understood by these Chinamen from 
the Canton Province. To aid in this work of preach- 
ing the Gospel in the Chinese language. Rev. Hu Sing 
Me, an ordained native deacon of the Foo Chow Mis- 
sion, was transferred to the California Conference, and 
appointed to aid in this mission work. He arrived with 
his family in January, 1871. 

Great hopes were entertained that this native agency 
would be eminently successful ; but the Rev. Hu Sing 
Me, after spending about two years in the mission, the 
most of which time was devoted to learning the Can- 
ton dialect, became dissatisfied, unhappy and useless, 
and in June, 1873, he returned to the work in his 
native country. 

The first person baptised in this mission was Chow 
Loke Chee — baptized in October, 1871. On the de- 
parture of Mr. Hu Sing Me, Chow Loke Chee was 
employed as assistant-preacher to his own people. He 
labored faithfully and successfully until August, 1875, 
when he also returned to China, married, and is now 
employed as translator in connection with a newspaper 
of Hong Kong. 

The preaching place from the first has been a small 
chapel at 620 Jackson street, known as the Foke Yam 
Tong, or Gospel Temple. It was opened as a chapel 
in April, 1872, and, from that time to this, the rule has 



[ 7 ] 



been to open this chapel at two o'clock p. m. every day 
for preaching the Gospel in the Chinese language to all 
those who come in. 

At first the people were shy, standing at the doorway, 
but fearing to enter. Now, whenever the door is 
opened, the chapel is soon filled. Many thousands of 
Chinese have heard something of the Gospel in this 
Chapel, and this Foke Yam Tong is known among the 
Chinese all over the land. A number of our most 
substantial members of the church are also the fruits 
of this department of the work. 

BESULTS, INDIREQT. 

1. A splendid property, worth $35,000. 

2. A well-established and popular school, with an 
average attendance of 80. 

3. Hundreds of scholars, scattered all over this 
country, and in China and Japan, who have been 
under the infl.uence of this school for a longer or 
shorter time. 

4. The confidence and respect of the Chinese in 
America, who generally recognize the Mission as one 
of their strongest friends and protectors. 

5. A permanent preaching place in Chinatown 
proper, where the Gospel has been daily preached in 
the Chinese language for about five years. 

6. Many thousands of Chinese, in all parts of t£e 
country and in China, who have heard more or less of 
the Gospel in this chapel. 

7. An asylum for helpless, enslaved Chinese women 
and girls, seventy-five of which class have already en- 
joyed its protection. Present number, 26. 



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DIRECT RESULTS. 

Baptized and received iuto the church-— 
During conference year ending September, 1872... 7 

a u a u u 1873.. 11 

" a u u u 1874.. 16 

" " " 1875... 9 

u u u u 1876.. 8 

" " " 1877... 23 

74 

Of this number five are now in China ; twelve are the 
fruits of the branch work at San Jose, under the imme- 
diate care of Mrs. M. F. Burns ; eighteen are the fruits 
of the Womans' Missionary Society; four are now 
engaged as assistant preachers or student helpers, and 
give promise of usefulness. One of those in China 
(Chow Loke Chee) is a licensed local preacher. 

The members of this Mission are now organized into 
a regular church or charge, with stewards, class-leaders, 
exhorters, quarterly meetings, love-feasts and mission- 
ary collections. 

TIME OF SEBVIOES AT THE MISSION HOUSE 

Evening Schools, daily 7 to 9 p. m. 

Song Services and Bible Class, Wednesday. 7 to 9 p. m. 

Sunday Bible and Catechism Classes 11 a. m. 

Preaching in Chinese by the Superintend't. 12 m. 

Sunday-School for Women 1^ p. m. 

Qeneral Sunday-School 6 p. m. 

General Class-meeting 8 p. m. 

SERVICES AT THE CHAPEL, 620 JACKSON STREET. 

Preaching in Chinese by native preachers, daily .2 p. m. 

Mr. Stowe's School, daily 10 a. m. 

Mr. Stowe's Sunday-School 1 p. m. 



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Friends of the mission work, whether permanent 
residents of the Coast or visitors from abroad, are 
always welcome to any of these services; and their 
occasional visits encourage both the missionary and 
the native Christians. 

We are also praying that God may put it in the 
heart of some one wh ) has the means to educate one 
of our young men for the ministry. This is especially 
important for service in this country. We have a 
young and promising candidate, called of God to this 
work. Has God called any one to help him to a 
Christian education ? 

o 

Christian Work Among Chinese Women. 

(By the Secretary of the Woman's Missionary Society.) 

The Chinese women on the Pacific Coast are, most of 
them, brought here to fill houses of prostitution, or to 
\ be secondary wives to the Chinese who are able to sup- 
port them. 

Many of them are sold by their parents or relatives, 
when quite young, as servants, and at a suitable age 
are sold into lives of vice. 

Some, while little children, are kidnapped by men 
who roam about the country and make their living by 
stealing and selling children. 

It is obvious that many of these women who find 
themselves strangers in this country, are unwilling 
slaves in the worst kind of servitude. 

One can scarcely imagine a more hopeless life than 
that led by these poor creatures. Living where they 



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cannot speak the language of the people, and fearing 
to make their troubles known to their own country- 
men, was it at all strange that among the items in the 
morning papers one would often read that the night 
previous a Chinese woman committed suicide? Some 
of the ladies of San Francisco, reading such paragraphs, 
began to think of the condition of these poor women, 
and to wonder if they could help them to a better life. 
They seemed entirely out of reach. With the barrier 
of an unknown language between them, they were 
widely separated from Christian women. 

But something must be done. Hence the " Woman's 
Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast " was organized 
in August, 18T<), the object being, as stated in their 
constitution, to " elevate and save heathen women on 
these shores." It wished to become a branch of the 
W. F. M. Society, for if that Society ever had legiti- 
mate work to do, it is here among the idolatrous 
heathen women, at our very doors. But the innocent- 
looking word foreign in their Constitution prevented 
them from receiving this Society as a branch. Then 
the Society turned to the Parent Missionary Society, 
asking that the Missionary Board would recognize their 
work and appropriate funds for this special purpose. 
In this direction they met with more encouragement ; 
the Missionary Board having every year appropriated 
the funds for this work and the W. M. S. has remitted 
to the Parent Society such funds as it has been able t© 
raise. 

The ladies were organized for work, but how were 
they to reach the women whom they wished to aid % » 
They need not scatter notices among them, as they 
could not read, and the men would not tell the help- 



[ 11 1 



less women of a place of refuge. The officers of the 
Society let it be known at the police station that they 
had rooms fitted up as an asylum for any who might 
wish to escape from their life of bondage. Still no one 
came. 

In May, 1871, a school w^as opened, and Miss M. E. 
Williams w^as employed as teacher for three hours 
daily, wdth a salary of $25 a month. 

Some of the ladies also visited the women, accom- 
panied by Mrs. Sing Mi, a Chinese Christian w^oman, 
who could speak both Chinese and English. They in- 
vited the women to come to the school, and the chil- 
dren were especially urged to attend. But this effort 
was not successful, only about eight pupils accepting 
the invitation, and the teacher was often obliged to go 
to their houses and bring even them to school. After 
eight months of trial it was thought advisable to close 
this school, for though the teacher was most faithful, the 
school did not meet the wants of the Society. In Oc- 
tober, 1871, more than a year after the organization of 
the Society, the first woman sought refuge in the Mis- 
sion House. She had wearied of her sad life, and 
knowing but one way to be rid of it, had gone to the 
Bay and thrown herself into the water to end life and 
sorrow together. She was rescued and taken to the 
police station, whence she was sent to the Mission 
House. It might be well in passing, to state that this 
woman is no w married to a Christian Chinese man, and 
that herself and husband adorn their profession by 
well ordered lives. 
• In January 1873, there were three women in the 
care of the Society, and, as it seemed probable that the 
number would increase, it was thought best to hire a 



[ 12 ] 



teacher who should devote her whole time to the work 
in the Mission House, and in visiting among the women 
outside. Miss L. S. Templeton was engaged for this . 
work, with a salary of $750 a year. It was soon appa- 
rent that she must confine her labors to the Asylum, as 
the women from outside would come to school only for 
a day, and then simply for the purpose of enticing 
away those already there. 

After working over three years in the school, Miss 
T., not feeling able to take the entire charge of the 
girls, and the Society not having funds to warrant them 
in hiring an assistant, resigned her position, and Mrs. 
J. Walker was called to the place in September, 1876, 
and for the last year has had all the management of 
the girls, teaching and doing the work of a matron in 
the most satisfactory manner. 

There are seventy-one names recorded on the books 
of the Society, representing those who have sought its 
protection. The Society commenced work without any 
definite plan as to how it should be carried on, wait- 
ing for Providence to open the way and circumstances 
to denote what should be done. At first, women were 
received into the Asylum for a longer or shorter time, 
as they might choose, but experience led to the adop- 
tion of the present rule, by which none are received for 
less time than one year. 

Some of the women are placed in the school by 
Chinamen who wish to marry them at the end of the 
year, they paying $60 for board. There are also twelve 
girls, formerly servants, who ran away from their mas- 
ters on account of ill treatment. 

These girls have placed themselves under the care of 
the Society which supports them, educates them, and 



[ 13 J 



will endeavor to marry them to Christian Chinamen. 
It is hoped that some of them will teach and bless 
their heathen sisters. 

A few of the girls are supported by ladies who pay 
$5 a month or $60 a year for their board. Ladies in 
this Conference support girls. The Howard-street Sun- 
day School supports one, and a lady in Baltimore, Md., 
Miss S. E. Johnson, supports two. This seems to have 
a very good influence on the girls, as they feel that 
some one is interested in them and some one is praying 
for their welfare. The ladies would be glad to have 
the support of all these girls assumed by Christian 
women, or men who feel that they would like to do 
something in this way for Jesus; for, "Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have 
done it unto me." 

Twenty-three women have been legally married from 
the Asylum. There are now twenty-seven inmates. 
Two have been sent to the 3Iission House from 
Oregon, one from Vallejo, one from Stockton, and one 
from Sonoma. Eighteen have been baptized. Two of 
the number have returned to China, and one has been 
expelled from church membership. The expenses during 
the past year, including teacher's salary, boarding and 
lodging of the women, are about $1800 coin. The 
girls clothe themselves with proceeds of their work, 
done out of school hours. The teacher conducts a class 
and prayer meeting in the Mission House every Tues- 
day evening. At 10 o'clock Sunday morning the girls ' 
have a prayer meeting led by one of their number 
They attend church service in their own language 
at 12 o'clock every Sunday, and at \\ o'clock Sun- 
day School. There is also a general Sunday School 



[ 14 ] 



whicli they attend every Sunday evening. Wednesday 
evening the girls spend an hour in Mr. Gibson's school 
room, in singing, led by Bro. J. W. Butler, Supt. of 
Grace M. E. Sunday School, who deserves our hearty 
thanks for his kind and gratuitous labor. 

The Society has not the means it needs for carrying 
on its work. The large and constantly increasing work 
outside the Mission House has to be neglected for want 
of funds and laborers. 

The women who have been with us a year, and who 
have renounced the worship of idols, need constant 
help and encouragement. There should be a Bible 
woman, who would go to their homes to read to, and 
instruct them in the way of truth. We need teachers 
for the Sunday School, so that we can invite them in 
to learn the Scriptures and hear of Jesus. There has 
never been a year of such trial to the Society as the 
past. It is not that the work is less encouraging, for 
it was never more prosperous than now'. But it has 
never been so difficult to raise money as during the 
past year. Something is probably due to the hard 
times which have prevailed over the whole country, 
and the attitude of the public press, against anything 
that is Chinese, has perhaps had its effect upon our 
Christian people. But the apathy of Christians to this 
work which God has thrust upon His people of the , 
Pacific Coast is truly lamentable. 

We cannot get away from our plain duty by asking, 
" Am I my brother's keeper ?" We must meet the re- 
sponsihility of teaching these heathen in our midst the 
'knowledge of the true God, and He will require their 
souls at our hands. 



[ 15 ] 

Article III. of Constitution of W. M. Society says : 

" Any person may become a member of this Society 
by paying one dollar per annum in advance, and any 
person paying five dollars per quarter, for one year, or 
twenty dollars at any one time, shall be constituted a 
life member." 

Will not every Methodist woman of the Pacific 
Coast contribute to this cause, by becoming either an 
annual or life member of this Society. 

All funds for the " Wofnan^s Missionary Society " 
should be sent to the treasurer, Mrs. R. McElroy, 917 
Howard street, San Francisco. 

San Feancisco, Sept. 12th, 1877. 




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